Mount Maunganui surf lifesavers again showed their skills on the national stage at the Central Regional surf lifesaving championships at Taranaki's Oakura Beach yesterday, which doubled as the second round of the new Sonic Surf race national series.
Their efforts were lead by 16-year-old Katie Wilson, who won the under-16 ski race, board race and diamond lady, and finished second in the surf race.
Andrew Newton won the open board race after dueling with Midway's Matt Sutton, while Newton's Mount Maunganui teammate Jamie Banhidi took out the beach sprint and flags double. Bay of Plenty-based Scott Bicknell (Ocean Beach Kiwi) won the ski race, ahead of Orewa's Zac Franich and Sutton.
Beach sprinter Arna Wright completed the women's flags and sprint double and also used her board skills to help Mount Maunganui take out the open women's taplin relay, with Emmanuelle Bescheron and Brooke Shergold.
In fact, the Bay of Plenty club took a clean sweep of all three women's taplins, winning the under-19 and under-16 finals as well, bolstered by a 50-strong team of athletes who made the trek south.
They'll host the next round of the series, the Eastern Regionals (formerly the NRCs) at Mount Maunganui on January 28 and 29.
The Northern and Southern regional championships round out the series on February 18 and 19 and athletes will need to compete at three of the five rounds to be eligible for prizes. The top-10 ironmen and women qualifying for the decider during the Oceans 12 championships at Mount Maunganui on February 25.
Papamoa teenager Natalie Peat also finished third in the open women's ironman, continuing her steady rise through the sport, while Mount's Sam Shergold also continued his fine summer with wins in the under-19 ski race, with Papamoa's Matt Strange pipping him in the under-19 board race.
Meanwhile, just after flying back in from three weeks on the Gold Coast, Mairangi Bay's Maddie Boon blew the open ironwoman's field apart with a superb ski leg, heading off two-time national champion Nikki Cox, with Peat third.
In windy, stormy conditions at the west coast beach, 21-year-old Boon admits her preparation wasn't ideal for today's carnival and the benefits of her grueling trip to the star-studded Northcliffe club on the Gold Coast might still be some weeks away.
"I absolutely smashed myself in Aussie, to the point I picked up a head cold in the last week - we were training upwards of 5hrs a day and swimming around 30km a week," Boon explained.
"It was really tiring but enormously beneficial, especially training alongside Nutrigrain stars like Liz Pluimers and Courtney Handcock - you just can't get any better than that. I had a few mixed results today and the ironman was definitely the best of them - I only flew back in yesterday and I guess I was still showing the effects of three really hard weeks of training."
Like Boon, Midway teenager Cory Taylor saved his best performance for the open ironman, after struggling in his board and ski races.
The 18-year-old lost the ironman final at the first round of the series in Whangamata before Christmas when he fell off a wave but he wasn't about to make the same mistake twice, outsprinting New Zealand team veteran Glenn Anderson in a thrilling finish.
"He was a wave ahead in the swim leg but I managed to catch him in transition and we stuck together through the ski and the board legs," Taylor said.
"In the end, it came to a sprint up the beach - he just kept hanging on and wouldn't give up so I was pretty lucky to get it on the line. I knew I had to pull something out in the ironman, just so it wasn't a total wasted trip."
Lyall Bay's Tyler Maxwell was third in another impressive teenage showing, while Anderson took out the surf race, ahead of St Clair's Adam Simpson, and anchored New Plymouth Old Boys' open taplin win.